How to Pack a School Lunch Your Kid Will Eat

Ready to beat the lunch box blues? These foolproof lunch tips will get your kid packed and out the door in no time

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Packing school lunch can be a pain, these tips take out the sting.

Getting your kid to eat their school lunch can be quite the headache. First there’s the issue of packing the lunch: Heading to the grocery store to buy all of the necessary ingredients, getting up early to assemble everything, and making sure it’s all packed away neatly in your kid’s favorite lunch box. But even though you know you sent your kid off with a lunch intended to be eaten, how do you know they’re going to actually eat it?

Just because you’ve made the lunch doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll be eaten. Loud, noisy cafeterias make it hard for teachers to supervise students’ eating habits, and a lunch box bartering system unlike anything we’ve ever seen makes it nearly impossible to ensure that the lunch we pack for our kids is going to be eaten when they’re at school.

Food editor and cookbook author J.M. Hirsch realizes this is a common issue that parents face. Like him, most parents don’t have time to decorate their kids’ lunches into designs they’ll want to eat, and most parents care too much about their kids’ nutrition to pack something processed or unnatural, even when they know it’s guaranteed to be eaten.

His solution is Beating the Lunch Box Blues, a book that guides parents on how to pack a successful lunch box. His book shares inspiration and ideas that will help you pack a fast, easy, and affordable lunch box. Along with lunch box inspiration, Hirsch shares 30 fast and flavorful dinner recipes that are perfect for a weeknight meal and great to pack up the next day for lunch.

His book is filled with hundreds of successful tips that will help you ensure that your child is eating a healthy, well-balanced lunch at school. In addition to his book, Hirsch has shared nine foolproof lunch-packing tips with The Daily Meal to help us get a head-start on our school lunches. Simple things that will help you save time, money, and your child’s nutrition are all it takes to pack a successful lunch, and you’ll see that with Hirsch’s help, you’ll be able to pack a school lunch that your kids will actually eat in no time.

Orginally published on October 12, 2014

Anne Dolce is the Cook editor at The Daily Meal. Follow her on Twitter @anniecdolce